Violent Weekend Pushes Murder Count to All-Time High

Murder and mayhem in The Bahamas

Three more murders were recorded this past weekend pushing the murder count for the last two weeks to 12.

This is the highest number of violent crimes in a two-week period in the history of The Bahamas. And this under a PLP government whose election campaign consisted of billboards criticizing the FNM for the number of murders that occurred on their watch.

In the first murder of the violent weekend, a man was shot to death around 8:00pm Friday night after arguing with one of four men who approached him, as he was walking through Meadow Lane, off East Street.

Police have not officially identified the victim, whose body was riddled with bullets. However, a local newspaper reported that he is 26-year-old Plillario Simmons of Podoleo Street. Simmons was out on bail for stealing and receiving and was wearing an electronic monitoring device.

Early Saturday morning, police were called to break up a fight which started in the parking lot of a club located in the Independence Shopping Centre sometime after 3:00am.

During the fight, three men were stabbed and taken to the hospital, according to police.

Police believe the fight started after one of the victims spilled a drink on a female friend of one of the attackers. The club’s security officers threw the entire lot out of the club.

The fight continued in the parking lot and the group left the scene, heading to Bain Town where one of the cars crashed near Eneas Street… and the fight continued.

One man, who was stabbed multiple times in the chest and abdominal areas, died around 10:30am. The second man is in critical condition and the third man was treated and released from the hospital.  Police are questioning a 38-year-old man in connection with that attack.

The body of a third man was pulled from a pond behind the National Insurance Board on Baillou Hill Road around 7:20am on Saturday. Police said the victim had injuries to the upper body.

The victim, who has not yet been identified but is believed to be in his mid-twenties, was discovered lying face down and wearing a blood stained shirt and underwear.

He was discovered with multiple head and hand injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.  A pair of blue jeans and black sneakers were found in bushes nearby.

Police investigations continue in all three matters.  Anyone with information regarding any of these incidents are asked to contact the police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymous tip hotline at 328TIPS.

In other violent crime news, a 45-year-old man of Coca Plum Lane off Florida Court is in serious condition in the hospital after being shot multiple times. Also, a 26-year-old man of Robinson Road is in hospital after being stabbed. The victim was at Robinson Road at 9:00pm on Saturday when he was approached by a man he knew who stabbed him in the neck and leg. He was taken to hospital where he is listed in serious, but stable condition.

Last week, National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage said he thought that the punishment for crimes were too harsh. He said the PLP intends to review the Anti-crime legislation passed by the FNM, with a view to reversing some of the changes, in particular some of the mandatory higher sentences.
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The PLP ran a strident anti-crime campaign, running billboards with the number of murders that occurred on the FNM’s watch, and promising to wage an “unlenting war on crime”.

But now, Dr Nottage wants to review “everything” the FNM did to fight crime, simply because some convicts complained about their sentences.

“A lot of the persons who have been – I can’t call them victims – who have been convicted have made certain approaches to us about the severity of some of their sentences.”

The weekend’s mayhem pushed the murder count for 2012 up to 57, ahead of the 48 recorded at this time last year.